144 FARM FRIENDS AND FARM FOES 



tively large insects, having hard bodies with long snouts, on 

 the ends of which are well-developed jaws by means of 

 which they can burrow through young cornstalks very 

 quickly. The adult beetles feed upon the tissues of these 

 stalks, greatly weakening the plant when they burrow 

 through it. In the case of a typical species, the insect 

 hibernates in the adult state, and attacks the young corn 

 soon after it comes up. The eggs are laid in early sum- 

 mer, commonly about the bulbs of timothy and perhaps 

 other plants, and the larvae burrow into these bulbs and there 

 develop. They grow rapidly and become mature beetles 

 late in summer or early in autumn. 



Some of the best-known species of Billbugs develop as 

 larvae in sedges or rushes of various kinds. Practically all 

 of them appear to breed chiefly on low lands where sedges 

 are likely to abound. The cornfields often injured are 

 those upon or near such lands. Fall plowing is an efficient 

 preventive of injury by these pests. 



Cotton Boll Weevil 



The Cotton Boll Weevil has attracted more attention 

 during recent years than almost any other destructive 



insect. Migrating into 



Texas from Mexico about 



ADULT the year 1890, this pest 



has gradually spread to- 



MEXICAN ward the north and east 



^k and threatens to become 



COTTON BOLL ^ destructive almost every- 



WEEVIL pup^ where that cotton is 



grown. Within about a 



EGO dozen years of its intro- 



duction, when it was still 



